THE RIGHTEOUS REPORT
your salty guide to the snow-white world of ani difranco
brought to you by the fine folks at Righteous Babe Records
February 25, 1997
WELCOME to the first issue of the newly revamped Righteous Report: revamped because this thing started
life a little more than a year ago as a weekly (more or less) update on Ani D's comings & goings, faxed out
to radio stations, retailers, and other -- ahem -- "industry people." That still exists, but we're really much
more excited about this electronic version, which contains most of the same info PLUS additional saucy
tidbits and MINUS some of the more repellent industry-talk so damnably necessary for our schemes of
Global Market Saturation and complete corporate domination. (The sardonic, world-weary tone persists, as
you can see, so beware.) That said, awaaaaay we go:
AT LAST! THE SKINNY ON THE NEW LIVE ALBUM!
Here's what we can tell you so far: 2 discs, 31 tracks, over 2 hours of music. 2 previously unreleased songs.
A big, colorful booklet packed with pretty pictures (hand-picked and captioned by Guess Who). The title:
Living in Clip. The release date: April 22. The format: CD only, alas. The sound: superlative, but of course.
Recorded on 8-track ADAT videotape, of all things.
ON THE COVER OF THE ROLLING STONE
That's where you'll find Ani these days: her name, at least. And there's a big portrait on the Feb. 6 contents
page, pointing the way to Lorraine Ali's interview. Then there's the cover of the March CMJ, announcing
Lois Maffeo's story, accompanied by Ani's track ("Untouchable Face") on the accompanying CD. The
March/April Utne Reader has a story on "Artist-run Rock," centering on Guess Who, and there's a preview
of "Living in Clip" in the March issue of Ice: The CD News Authority, featuring an interview with RBR's own
Mary Begley. And of course we're all amused, sort of, by the Feb. Mademoiselle quiz, "Who's your rock
and roll model?" which informs women that if they wear "a long, flowing skirt made of hemp fibers" that they
take after Ani rather than Fiona Apple ("black turtleneck sweater and perfume") or Courtney Love ("a
daring outfit by an up-and-coming desinger"). Actually Ani was a little taken aback: "Hemp fibers????" were
her exact words, as best we could catch them.
THE YEAR IN SONG, THE YEAR IN MUSIC
Tons o' year-end wrap-ups coming out lately. Among the papers, magazines, and other entitites listing Dilate
as one of the best albums of '96 are: The Village Voice (their '96 Pazz & Jop critics' poll), The Advocate,
Time, The L.A. Times, San Francisco Express, B.L.A.S.T., Gavin, FMQB, Nightlines, The Daily News
(Middlesboro, KY), Hits, Alternative Press, Denver Westward, City Paper (Washington, DC), and MTV
Online. Utah Phillips' album made the Boston Globe's list of Top Folk Albums, and the Minneapolis City
Paper selected
"The Woody Guthrie Conference Musicians" (a reference to the show last summer at the Rock & Roll Hall
of Fame w/ Ani, Indigo Girls, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, & others) as Artists of the Year.
AND SPEAKING OF NEW ALBUMS...
Oh, that foxy Bruce Cockburn. First he invites Ani to play on his brand-new Rykodisc album, The Charity
of Night, and then he devotes himself to spreading the word about the girl's own music across the globe: on
NPR's Weekend Edition and a CBC talkshow, in the Italian magazine Buscadero... and those are just the
ones we caught. You go, boy.
UTAH PHILLIPS, WEBSLINGER
Turns out our old pal Utah P. has one of the coolest, savviest, most content-crammed websites we've ever
seen. (And we're not just saying that 'cuz it contains an online version of the presskit for The Past Didn't Go
Anywhere, either.) You can access it at http://www.hidwater.com/utah/. Speaking of Utah, we sure did like
singer/songwriter John McKutcheon's review of The Past in his quarterly newsletter ("should be required
listening for parents and children alike"), which we're pretty sure (but not positive) is available through his
website:
http://www.folkmusic.com. And perhaps you do not already know about Utah's regular "Utalk" column in
the New England Folk Almanac, which is always insightful and delightful--and we're not just saying that 'cuz
the Feb. 1 issue contains his own take on the making of the album (plus a review by Elijah Wald).
IS THERE A TEXT IN THIS RECORD STORE? A FIELD REPORT FROM THE GROVES OF
ACADEME
Our pals in English-Department-land tell us that the last Modern Language Association (MLA) convention
featured a paper by Marcy Jane Knopf of Miami University, Ohio, entitled "Untying Tongues and Breaking
Silences: Race and Sexuality in Marlon Riggs and Ani DiFranco." Next thing you know, she'll be on the
syllabus at a campus near you.
AND THE RADIO IS COUNTING DOWN...
Keep an ear out for the latest batch o' stations around the country playing tracks from the remix EP More
Joy, Less Shame, The Past Didn't Go Anywhere (Ani's collabaoration with Utah P), and even good old
Dilate: WERU (E. Orlando, ME), WFVV (NYC), WNTX (Kalamazoo,MI), KSPI (Stillwater, OH),
WEBX (Champaign, IL), WXSR (Tallahassee, FL), WSCS (New London, NH), KRBD (Ketchikan, AK),
KABA (somewhere in AK), KTEG (Albuquerque, NM), and KNRK (Portland, OR).
THE WORLD IS HER OYSTER, THE ROAD IS HER HOMEPAGE
The spring tour touches down in the following places...
3/4: Baltimore *
3/5: Richmond, VA *
3/6: Raleigh, NC *
3/8: Binghamton, NY *
3/9: Hartford, CT *
3/11: New Brunswick, NJ *
3/13: Burlington, VT *
3/14: Albany, NY *
3/15: Providence, RI *
3/16: Lewiston, ME *
3/18: Keene, NH *
3/19: New York, NY *
3/21: Port Chester, NY *
3/22: Syracuse, NY *
3/23: Rochester, NY *
4/3: Lakewood, OH *
4/4: Louisville, KY *
4/5: Louisville, KY *
4/6: East Lansing, MI *
4/9: Cedar Rapids, IA *
4/10: Champaign, IL *
4/12: Milwaukee, WI *
4/13: Indianapolis, IN *
4/16: Clinton, NY *
4/18: New Haven, CT
That's it for this time. Feel free to distribute this Report anywhere you like, so long as you don't change the
text. Okay? See you in a few weeks...
Ron E.
Righteous Babe Records PO Box 95 Ellicott Stn., Buffalo, NY 14205
phone: 1-800-ON-HER-OWN